I'd say it was exactly the place; they already know how they operate after all. We should be doing a lot more to share information than we are. At the moment the only truly network enabled force operating at a tempo to allow them to cut inside the adversary's OODA loop is ... the Taliban. We panic over security and they benefit.

The security argument is interesting. A course I did whilst in the Mob (JDSC) involved being lectured to by a couple of SIGINT types. When asked the question "Do the Soviets have a fixed Callsign System?" they couldn't tell us because of .........security.

So the Russkies knew, the SIGINTS knew and a group of Captains All Arms didn't! The reply went down like a lead fart and there were some stroppy feckers on that Course

Fire Control: Enemy forces have demonstrated a high level of fire control in numerous engagements. They have shifted and focused their fires on what they perceived to be the greatest threat. Ambushes have generally been initiated with bursts of machinegun fire followed by volleys of RPGs. The beaten zone of the RPGs have been within six inches to a foot. This shows a very developed system of fire control and points to a section leader controlling these fires. The complexity and size of some of these ambushes point to a platoon and company level command structure.

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Fire Discipline: The enemy has been extremely disciplined with their fire and only engaged targets who were within the effective range of their weapon systems. Enemy forces normally utilized RPGs on mounted forces and small arms on dismounted troops. They also generally fired their AKs on single shot. All enemy fire was well aimed and very effective. Machineguns were well aimed and fired in bursts in order to conserve ammunition.

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Fire and Maneuver: The enemy proved to be very adept at fire and maneuver. The enemy would fix Marines with RPG and machine gun fire and attempt to maneuver to the flanks. This happened with every engagement. If elements of the platoon were attacked from one direction, they could expect further attacks to come from the flanks. This occurred both with mounted and dismounted elements of the platoon.

For a starter:- Read anything decent written by the Soviets, such as "The Bear went over the Mountain" which discusses Post Action Reports by the Sovets, then read something like "Afghan Guerrilla Warfare: In the Words of the Mujahideen Fighters" which does what it says.

All this claptrap about not dicussing Taliban TTP in public is a bit f**king stupid when somebody has already published the same Pam the Talban work from. The Mujahideen did anything, such as following convoys on motorbikes, dickers on high ground, wide area ambushes in Green zones, that the Taliban are doing now, Who the f**k do you think are the Taliban's senior fighters now? Is it all possible that the Tailban are possibly run by men who fought the soviets?

For a starter:- Read anything decent written by the Soviets, such as "The Bear went over the Mountain" which discusses Post Action Reports by the Sovets, then read something like "Afghan Guerrilla Warfare: In the Words of the Mujahideen Fighters" which does what it says.

All this claptrap about not dicussing Taliban TTP in public is a bit f**king stupid when somebody has already published the same Pam the Talban work from. The Mujahideen did anything, such as following convoys on motorbikes, dickers on high ground, wide area ambushes in Green zones, that the Taliban are doing now, Who the f**k do you think are the Taliban's senior fighters now? Is it all possible that the Tailban are possibly run by men who fought the soviets?

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And, as mentioned in another thread, the US and Afghan book / report called "The other side of the mountain" which looks at the Mujihadeen (sp) tactics. a very interesting read!

Bah! Back in my day, we used the jezail, hit someone with that and they stayed down... And remember mutton grill anyone?

On a slightly more serious note, Koran, Kalashnikov & Laptop by Antonio Giustozzi is good on their ORBAT- apparently they give great tactical latitude to their section commanders, men in their early 30s, and in that sense might be comparable to WW1 & 2 Germany- No real equivalent of a platoon commander, as I recall.